Suppose for a moment that we are looking at things upside down. Suppose that the dismay and fear associated with a “failure” to return to a growth economy is misguided. Suppose that what is happening is not a kind of death but a kind of birth.

With these eyes the present disruption and confusion is no more than an unwillingness to move. For the old economy is trying to find a way to be reborn into a new form.

There can be no doubt that all that is happening signifies a system in transformation. The questions we need to ask are these: what is the new form to be, how can we best enable its birth and how can we be a part of it.

What appears in the old language to be “recession” is an economy seeking a lower and more sustainable level of consumption. Given the limits to continuous growth, this would seem to be a good thing – and those that have most will have to give to those who have least. Those who do not have enough will need the support of those who have more than enough.

What is important is not a frantic struggle to prop up the old economy but imagination and generosity to help the new economy take form.